Livescribe: The NEXT Digital Pen

Okay, before you even read what’s coming, get out your wallet and kiss $200 of your holiday spending money goodbye…

I’ve been using Logitech’s io Digital Pen for about a year now, and students (and other instructors) are pretty impressed by it. But this pen (livescribe)looks like its going to blow the Logitech io out of the water and into orbit.

You take notes with the digital pen on your digital paper (that much is the same)… but while you take notes, it simultaneously records the lecture. And when you tap the pen on some part of the notes, it plays back that part of the lecture. Did you catch that? It RECORDS the lecture synchronously with the notes. This concept is both awesome and scary at the same time.

Awesome … because notes from a math class have never been particularly helpful without having the oral communication of procedures to go with them.

Scary … because everything you say in class would be recorded, and you might not even be aware that it’s going on (especially for the technologically-challenged, who won’t even realize that anything out of the ordinary is going on).

Anyways, here is a very awesome sneak peak (or you can watch it in the youtube window above). If you go to the website, click on the PLAY NOW under Paper Replay. On the main livescribe page there is a “Preorder Your Smartpen” box. I’ll admit it… I’ve preordered one… how can I possibly resist?